Madeira attractions, map, sightseeing plan, trips, the most beautiful places
Too busy
If you want to get to know Madeira well, there will be plenty to do. The island is dense with attractions and these are attractions of a very varied nature. You probably won't have the time (or determination) to see them all, but if you put in the effort, you might be close to 100%. Most of the places are practically on the road and are almost at your fingertips. A large part of them are simply easily accessible vantage points that you can drive up to by car or even drive past. Some are short walking trails, taking from a dozen to several dozen minutes, and some are activities that will take you all day.
On the internet you will find a lot of lists of attractions in Madeira, but I know from my experience that a list alone is not enough. Whenever you read the description of an attraction you like, you ask yourself: where on the island is it? A map is needed. Map of attractions presenting the location of all points of interest on the island. I will surprise you though. The map of attractions is also not enough. Why? Roads are also key. In Madeira, the fact that two attractions are close does not mean that you can easily drive between them. The following example illustrates this well.
The trap of short distances
Suppose it occurred to you to visit first Nuns Valley (Curral das Freiras), then take the quick and easy trail to the top Pico Ruivo (PR 1.2 Vereda to Pico Ruivo). Both points are 6,5 km apart, but getting from one to the other is another matter.
See how the fastest route, determined by navigation, connecting the two points I mentioned looks like.
The fastest journey between points 6,5 km apart is over 60 km long and takes about 1,5 to 2 hours.
Planning a visit to Madeira requires a moment of reflection and good planning. So I tried to organize this post in such a way as to provide you with the right dose of key information. I assume that after reading it, you will be able to plan your visit to Madeira yourself, avoiding unnecessary journeys. The more that driving around Madeira, due to frequent serpentines, is not easy at all.
How to visit Madeira?
If you want to get to know the island really well, you have no choice. It will make the most sense to rent a car. Moving around by public transport is possible, but it does not give you the opportunity to quickly reach many of the places I have described.
You can also try ready-made trips, proposed by the travel agency in the hotel, but the offer does not cover all places.
In this article, I will not devote space to car rental advice, because there is a really solid and helpful entry available on this topic: Madeira Car Rental - No Credit Card or Deposit
So I sent it to him. I consider it mandatory to read it before renting a car.
Public transport and trips from local travel agencies can work in a situation where you do not want to explore the island so much and you intend to see only selected, single attractions. Then check the offer you can find in a hotel or a resident, or look for something on the trip page - [click]
Madeira attractions map
First, take some time to familiarize yourself with the map. For this occasion, I have prepared a special map of Madeira, which will be the main working tool for you when planning your visit to the island.
On the map, I marked the location of the attractions I selected, but I also marked the course of the main access roads connecting all the marked places. Thanks to this, you can see at a glance whether there is a reasonable road connection between the attractions you are interested in. Of course, on the map, apart from the roads marked by me, there are other road connections, but before you decide to take other routes, take into account that they can be technically difficult, steep and winding. Madeira is full of such roads.
Some of the existing roads in Madeira have been closed in recent years because new, safer ones have been built. Just because a road exists on a map doesn't mean you can drive on it. Navigations should be able to deal with this fact well, but using only a paper map can lead to unpleasant surprises.
Each attraction marked on the map has its own number. In the further part of the text under this number you will find additional information related to a given attraction. It will be mainly a short description and some important information (if necessary).
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